Can you let Harper know that Ser Arkivald has become a full NPC with a love interest at my table? Thanks. Five stars.

-Dan

I'm plugging this into my Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign. I've filed the serial numbers off and used it was the Dwarf City in Wyvern Songs / Opera Valley. It's perfect! Really fun mini open adventure area with some unique factions and situations.

I purchased this because I thought I might like it, but I ended up liking it more than expected. A great, concise seafaring campaign world that accomplishes what it sets out to do, and establishes some really fun ways to create the verisimilitude for how players can have the same home base and yet visit constantly changing areas and why there are so many undead present in the world.

The mechanics are well done, and the distinction between individual scale and ship scale activities is clear without adding layers of cumbersome rules or hand-waving the differences away. The creatures are entertaining, with special kudos to the way great creatures that can attack ships (leviathans) are given two tiers of attacks: an attack against the ship, and an attack or effect against individuals. It's a great way of keeping the focus on the larger combat while still adding a layer of what happens to the individual crew members against such a beast.

The lore of the setting is fun, and the inclusion of the Silt, the shifting lands beneath the reduced sea, and the Mist, the ever-present fog over the sea, provide a great in-game reason for the characters to continually explore and never really know what is out there. At the same time, they allow for enough stability to establish longer term quests, such as an attempt to restore the sea which has been corrupted and is indirectly responsible for spawning undead after undead. The source of that corruption is clever, and offers the potential for a truly epic quest without removing the realities that characters in the game are ultimately rather fragile and all too mortal.

If you like the Mark of the Odd type systems, this is a great setting that offers a clever twist. If you are familiar with Lilliputian, you will find similar ground covered with the Undying Sea; though for my money I'd favor the Undying Sea. That said, since I have both, I can also see how elements of the two games can rather seamlessly interact with one another, expanding the range of available ships, creatures, and ocean generation.

Fantastic beginner adventure with a ton of varied encounters and varied outcomes for those encounters. Plays a bit fast and loose procedurally, compared to some 'advanced' OSR content, but that's hardly a point against it in my opinion. Great, original idea with an adventure that gradually escalates from insidious strangeness to true horror.

Reavers and Rogues (25 pages) is a fun 2d6, Powered by the Apocalypse, solo RPG. It can be played in a session of 30 to 60 minutes. I created one character with a hunting/fishing background. She was armed with chipped knives, had been cursed (this will bite her in the butt), had sleep as a vice, and a fear of going hungry. The adventure started with Kal in a tavern. This is where she picked up the rumor of the Jade Toad (object). She searched for something to help her and she found spices (a type of food). She started off in the proper direction and encountered a dump of rusty (sharp) objects. She convinced an air elemental to carry her across it. She did find a scrap of armor and a bone shirt. Next, she encountered a bloody thief (it was not his blood). He took her bone shirt. The next hazard was a waterfall path that led up. Again, she convinced an air elemental to carry her past the danger.

When she found the Dark Tower, she went down into the cellar. Here she discovered the black widow maiden. A ghost helped her evade it and the ghost whispered a secret in her ear. Not long after this she found the Boss (vicious widowed princess with a sword). It was a fight to the death and Kal won. However, she lost her left hand. She did find the Jade Toad. She headed back in the direction of home and ran into a nasty monsoon. It took her three months to get home. So, she did make it home and now she is considering selling this item. It would enable her to not work for several years. She is tempted.

Will you survive your first attempt at the Dark Tower?

This is a cool adventure, with a lot of content - I would guess 3-4 sessions depending on how your party goes. There are interesting locations and memorable characters, and a chance to turn your party into gibbering horrors and who doesn't like that, after all. Despite being for levels 1-3 this is no soft and fluffy adventure. Character death seems... if not probably then very possible. There is combat, there is exploration, there are a lot of NPCs, there's a horrible end, all signs of a quality adventure.

The formatting isn't what a 5e reader expects. There's no art apart from the cover, the maps are informative, but more like black and white sketches (although nicely done and electronic) and there aren't any battle maps, so ... theatre of the mind. The monsters are very cool and original - downside is that these aren't included in online encounter builders, if you use those. Also, there's no art, as I mentioned, so if you don't know what a vulgrane is (for example) you get to make it up based on the stats. There's also a lot of magic items, which also seem unique. Again, you'll have to prep if you use virtual character sheets.

So, in sum, I think this is a quality adventure but it may be difficult for some DMs to run, and I think as a DM you should carefully explain to the party that it's an OSR style of adventure in which things may definitely be too much too handle. And if you play online, you should be prepared for quite a bit of prep, or enjoy having a non-VTT game with just a dice roller!

a very memotable adventure that has limitless ways to expands and work into your homebrew. the imaginary top down view of the world will leave you thinking about it for years to come

The adventure is short and sweet, 9 packed pages just as OneShots should be! The formatting is eye catching and descriptive allowing you to digest and relay data quickly.

~ Page breakdown ~

• Notes for the DM 2pgs
• A Map 1pg
• Locations Descriptions 4 pgs
• Monsters 2 pgs
• Treasure 1pg

In response to the other review here... The Notes for the DM part tells you everything you need to know about balance and difficulty. Please read fully before slinging negative reviews.

SPOILERS & FAVORITE PARTS BELOW ------------------------ Favorite Treasure? - Sir Arkivald's skull is my coolest uncle for sure. Favorite Monster? - Tug the Jaguar-Anaconda tugs on my heartstrings, quite litterally.

I love the descriptions!! They are so visceral you can smell your surroundings. Do yourself a favor and read this bit outloud.

"A faint dirt path meanders through massive dead gray trees rustling with ashen leaves. Twisted black lichen glistens on the dead logs littering the shadowy forest floor. Dull blue toadstools drip cold ichors into the dusty soil. Legions of tiny red termites rustle in the undergrowth."

They also go through each one of those highlighted subjects into even more detail to keep your players sated. I guarantee these $2 dollars are worth more than the $5 you spent on coffee this morning.

The adventure is short, which isn't bad if it's what you want. It has some very basic information on new monsters, no advice whatsoever on skill check DCs to spot traps or hazards, no advice on save DCs vs. dungeon hazards.

Then let's get to the treasure. It includes...

SPOILERS BELOW

Items like a crown that makes you immune to fear AND dragon breath. An item that lets you 1/day reduce any scaled creature's hp by half, and a bunch of other stuff. No save DC given for that last item by the way.

While it's a good start and it could be turned into a decent adventure with some work, dear God but these people need to work on their details and learn how to balance treasure for a level 3 adventure.

I purchased this module and a few others after reading a few reviews from Bryce's tenfootpole blog. Despite starting ttrpg's with 5e and DMing other systems I've never actually DM a game of 5e. So, it's great having a few modules I can use as one shots or smaller campaigns for my DM toolbox.

Pros: Ease of use; Designed for GMs; Great 3 column layout and great formatting overall; Easy to prep

I can see myself using this adventure with minimal prep and running most of it just looking at the book.

Cons: Art things

I like the use public domain art. I like the maps I would say they are probably at the level I could make. But still very functional. There's just a lot of white space at times due to formating that could have some cool art. But art is expensive and this is a minor issue.

Overall, I think it's a fantastic product and I look forward to running it. It makes me want to DM 5e.

I have not ran it for a group yet. I like the adventure its good however the end and the map need work, I would connect the map together on one page foe ez ref. The end is kinda anti climatic so I would not have the devil stuck in the prison.

A perfect adventure for a classic starting premise: "You begin in chains!" Cannot reccomend enough, works perfectly for slotting in to the begining to almost any jail adventure. Adventure is divided into three parts: The cell, the jail, and the fort. Each one is modular enough to stand up to change- the fort doesn't fit the campaign? Do away with it! Ran it for a pirate game as an opening and it worked amazing. Small and punchy, and does exactly what is says on the tin.

I played this with a group the other night and really enjoyed it. I knew nothing about the setting going in and I really enjoyed getting to explore and figure out what we needed to do as we went. I really enjoyed that there were multiple ways to handle each challenge, and my group made it through mostly avoiding combat, though a fair number of combat opportunities were there. The one shot was really well put together and it provided a sense of tension like what you'd get in a horror movie that was really enjoyable. I'd definitely recommend this if you are looking for something different to try!

Played this oneshot in about 4 hours, with 4 experienced level 3 players. This module is Exploration heavy with several ways for the players to have success. Our group is normally pretty heavy on the role-play and there were plenty of NPCs to encounter. We made it through it with a few really unique magic items and a bunch of injuries,and a few mutations, but we found our way out! Something unique to the Author is that they allow for combat and non-combat solutions. This felt like a pressure cooker play style, and I could see it taking up to 6 hours if you explore and interact with everything. Bring higher level characters if you are going to choose combat over wits, deception, and persuation! Looking forward to more that the Author has to offer!

This week I soloed my way through Orbital Vampire Tower: A Dungeon Age Adventure (5e and OSR versions). It is free/pay what you want at DriveThruRPG . It is for a Game Master and several players. It is a wild and crazy adventure that teleports the characters to a vampire space station. It has 26 pages which include two maps, 17 stat blocks, 17 magic items, and 17 rooms. This is listed as a third level adventure, so I did use six third level 5e characters. If you want the adventure to be more “fair”, you can use level five characters. I soloed it with a solo engine that I have been testing out.

So, my characters had a chance to do some exploring, but they ended up having to deal with two vampire mercenaries. The first big battle happened in an illusionary beach location (it was malfunctioning a bit). Three of my characters died there. One of the vampires had to retreat because of the turn undead ability. The other was frustrated with having to fight my characters, followed by an octopus, and then a shark. He exited the area. After a short rest, my party found a one way portal back to the glass hatch. They saw those darn two vampires again and ran away from them into the mercenary space ship. They ended up in the control room and started pushing all of the buttons. My three remaining characters and the two vampires could now hear, “destruct sequence initiated”. The vampires beat my team up for a turn and then used two of the escape pods. My characters then used two of the escape pods. The pods landed on the planet below, and once again they were in combat with the vampires (in the dark). Sager ran, jumped into a river, and used his Ring of Gills that he had found in the space station. So, he survived. Barak and Jag were killed by the vampires. Maybe you will have better luck. Give this fun adventure a try!